Manufacturing operations are generally configured to produce parts to satisfy customer demand. As demand for parts may vary, manufacturing operations may better balance the use of manufacturing machines by using each machine to produce a range of parts. Mixed-model manufacturing may refer to manufacturing operations in which different types of parts are produced using various manufacturing machines. Typical mixed-model manufacturing operations may be used to produce parts for various industries, such as, for example, automotive, mining, farming, aeronautical or any other industry requiring production of different parts. Mixed-model manufacturing may be advantageous if different parts require similar processing steps or manufacturing machines can be configured to process multiple parts. Using a single manufacturing machine to process multiple part types can increase machine utilization and decrease inventories of partially manufactured parts, thereby increasing the overall efficiency of the manufacturing operation.
Improving the efficiency of mixed-model manufacturing operations may be complicated. For example, if the number of parts produced or machines used increases, the number of different part routes may increase significantly. Further, changing the type or number of parts produced may create bottlenecks at some manufacturing machines, while leaving other machines under-utilized.
One method for analyzing mixed-model manufacturing includes grouping parts into “families,” as described in “Creating Mixed Model Value Streams,” by Kevin Duggan, published in 2002. Duggan defines a part family as a group of parts that pass through similar processing steps. Duggan also describes a tabular “part family matrix” that includes data corresponding to the manufacture of specific parts using specific processes. Duggan also provides software to reorganize the matrix to allow a user to visually identify part families. However, there are limitations to the software used to sort and reorganize the matrix. The software provided is limited by the number of parts it can reorganize and may require unacceptably time-consuming computation.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems described above.